


The Red and the Black

by onestepatatime32



Category: Les Misérables - All Media Types
Genre: Dubious Consent, Dubious Ethics, Dubious Morality, Dubious everything tbh, M/M, Not explicit but definitely muddy, Some referenced violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-25
Updated: 2020-07-25
Packaged: 2021-03-05 23:08:31
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,058
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25513315
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/onestepatatime32/pseuds/onestepatatime32
Summary: Montparnasse was only out for some pointless distraction, but something about Enjolras pulled him in.
Relationships: Enjolras/Montparnasse (Les Misérables)
Comments: 8
Kudos: 15
Collections: Rare Male Slash Exchange 2020





	The Red and the Black

**Author's Note:**

  * For [ancslove](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ancslove/gifts).



> For the Rare Male Slash Exchange 2020!

It was meant as an idle amusement; catch the cold, pretty revolutionary leader just out of a meeting, pin him against a damp alley wall, frighten him a little, drag him somewhere harder to find on the point of a knife and see how much it took to break him. 

Afterwards Enjolras had left him with a loftier air than ever, undaunted, with scalding words and harsh, condescending coldness. Montparnasse felt something strange and new drawing him towards this being.

He felt beyond smug the next week when Enjolras caught his eye in a crowd and froze. Montparnasse couldn’t have said what, but something strange swam under the ice of his stare. 

A fortnight later they met again; Montparnasse had the police on his tail; nothing he couldn’t shake, he told himself, but the strong hands and delicate blond curls that moved to yank him inside a doorway were hardly unwelcome. He knew these hands. 

“Back for more?” He purred, tracing a sharp nail down Enjolras’ throat. The man shuddered beneath him and Montparnasse felt something in him burn brighter in response.

Enjolras scoffed and shoved him back. “What I  _ need _ are other skills of yours. Unless you want  _ me _ to hand you right back to the gendarmes outside, citizen.” 

Montparnasse slouched and settled for nipping at Enjolras’ collarbone before raising an eyebrow. “And what might that be,  _ citizen _ ?”

The other man endeavored to hide a shiver in his voice that made Montparnasse almost weak. “I know who you are. My men talk about you, and everyone’s seen the wanted notices. We could use someone with your...abilities...when it comes to information gathering or finding supplies that wouldn’t be noted by the authorities. You have a talent for walking unseen” He swallowed. “It’s a cause worth fighting for. You must understand some of the injustice around you, to have chosen a life like this—”

Montparnasse laughed. “If I wanted anything to do with the death wish you all have I’d throw rocks at the officers instead of leaving the dogs bodies to sniff out. And as for the rest, well, I kill because I enjoy it, I steal because it gives me more life than work. I’d be hard-pressed to give enough of a damn to throw my life away for nothing like you will.” 

Enjolras snorted. “Someone like you  _ would _ see it as nothing.”

“”Someone like me”, is it?” He snarled and shoved a leg between Enjolras’ knees this time, grabbing a handful of golden hair to jerk the other man’s head back harshly. “We’re both going to end up with our blood drying on the street one day,  _ citizen _ . You’re not better than me for having a high-and-mighty reason.” 

Enjolras paused to reflect, then shoved him off again and grabbed his wrist. He spoke less coldly than before. “I’m prepared to make it worth your while.”

Montparnasse opened his mouth to laugh off the offer, but something in Enjolras’ stormy blue eyes held him in place. He shifted closer again and felt Enjolras’ pulse hammering in his throat as he kissed the nape of his neck. “Perhaps something can be arranged after all.”

* * *

The dark and the light, red and black.

This was what Montparnasse mused lazily as he gazed at the man tangled in the sheets beside him in the slow light of morning. The sounds of the city felt far away through the walls of the simple but neat flat Enjolras kept. He’d never been inside it before, somehow, even after all these months. The urgency and filth of the alleys and rough-stoned street corners always felt intrinsic to the game they played, to the point that Montparnasse had hardly considered anything else. 

He let his eyes drift over the other man’s body. Even lying here like this, scratched and bruised and spent, he looked untouched in a way. No matter how roughly Montparnasse treated him he could never seem to break through the wall of statuesque dignity and light Enjolras radiated. Enjolras was red and bright as revolution, as high ideals and the righteous blood of the people. Montparnasse thought with some disgust of his own body, wiry and scarred and bearing every mark of the festering darkness he was born of. He was never one to doubt his own charms, but there was something maddening about being in the presence of a being as beautiful as Enjolras that seemed to bare his every twisted edge. 

Montparnasse shook off his strange, lingering feeling of disquiet. The unease in the streets lately had risen with the heat of the approaching summer to the point that even he couldn’t ignore it. He groaned. He needed to slip away to some rat’s hole before the funeral of that blasted old general turned the whole city to a hurricane of blood. 

Enjolras stirred and sat up with some difficulty, leaning back against the wall for a moment before moving to dress. “Lamarque’s funeral will be today.”

“So you’ve made sure I know”, Montparnasse scoffed, “I couldn’t forget even if I shot myself, it’s all anyone’s talked of.”

“Will you come?”

“No.”

Enjolras nodded, for once without the condescending pride he usually assumed over these things. Montparnasse was almost stunned; he wondered if he was alone in witnessing this side of the man. 

“Thank you for arranging the meeting place for us last week.”

“Well, it’s not as if I wanted anyone  _ else _ hanging so near the place I was trying to rob,” Montparnasse replied with a sly smile. “You provided me with as much distraction as I provided you location.”

Enjolras sighed. “Well, an alliance works both directions. You have contributed well to the revolution, citizen.”

Montparnasse shoved his shoulder lightly, pausing to trace a hand across Enjolras’ half-dressed chest under the thin shirt he was buttoning up. He felt strange; perhaps it was the night’s exhaustion or the wine hanging over him, but his breath caught in his throat a little at the thought that this would in all likelihood be the last time he saw the man alive. 

He let his eyes meet Enjolras’ again and kissed him (almost gently) one last time. “Give the bastards hell before they gun you down.”

Montparnasse knew the smile Enjolras gave him as he turned to leave the room would be a scar on his heart forever. 

  
  
  
  


**Author's Note:**

> Dear reader-i-got-assigned-for-this-thing; Hi!! I had fun writing for this exchange; this isn’t a fandom or a pairing I’ve written before, so it was really neat to explore what their dynamic might be. This isn’t anything too long, exciting, or smutty I’m afraid, (I’m fairly new to writing rip) but I hope you like it!


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